Many baby classes – such as salsa and yoga – require mothers to perform the activity, but provide an opportunity for ‘bonding’.

However, Miss Hétu says infants should be protected from ‘over-stimulation’ and need the ‘calm presence of their parents’ and ‘day-to-day house sounds’.

She also calls for a revival in lullabies, saying a generation of parents do not ‘intuitively sing’ to their babies.

The book, edited by Dr Richard House of the Open EYE campaign group, concludes: ‘The evidence is overwhelming that “too much, too soon” is deeply damaging both to individual children and to our culture.

‘Educators, parents and policy-makers have a grave responsibility to arrest and reverse the “adultification” of children and childhood in whatever ways they can.’